Remember that there is a huge number of Armenian expats living in Lebanon. Nothing wrong with Zankou being considered as both Armenian AND Lebanese.... As long as they don't mess with their garlic sauce.

It's been a while since I've been to Zankou and they've opened up other branches and maybe changed... but, since I last visited several locations, I'd vote for the location on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood closer to Los Feliz. The skin on the chicken seemed to come out crispier.

The garlic sauce is the garlic sauce... simply delicious. I'm curious to know if anyone has any idea how this is made. I'm worried it's a blend of shortening with garlic.... but, I like-a da sauce.

I think you're right about the sauce. By the way, the Westwood location does not seem to use the same garlic sauce. It's prepackaged, which I don't ever get at the other locations. It doesn't seem to taste right.

If you do a search, you'll find recipes for the sauce on chowhound. I believe it's mashed potato, not shortening, that's the key. Also, I echo frommtron's complaint about the prepackaged sauce at the Westwood branch. They switched exclusively to prepackaged a couple of years ago, shortly after I moved to LA, and I could really tell the difference.

The composition of Zankou's garlic spread, whether it differs from branch to branch, and if it changed with the packaging has been the subject of previous threads and debates on this board. I've heard the rumors about potato as well, but if you ask the staff at Zankou, they insist that it is garlic processed with bit of oil, lemon juice, and salt.

I love Zankou, and they have the best garlic sauce i have ever tasted. I went to a Mediterranean restaurant on motor and venice once and they had good garlic. But after falling in love with that garlic, I had to find out how to make it, and nobody would tell me how to make it. I got different stories different ways, and then one day i looked on youtube and found this girl showing an amazing demonstration, it answered all my questions. She dose have a website, so if you want to check out how to make garlic sauce she tells you how to make it. I do not know if we post links here but here website is dedemed dot com. She dose a great job, i hope this helps and it taste amazing.

I'd vote for the one on Sepulveda, north of the 101. Woodland Hills perhaps? In any event, I live far closer to the one on Sunset, but (when I have the time) I'll drive up there because it's much much better. The meat is more tender and juicy and the sides are fresher. Parking at either branch is a bit of an issue though.

Van Nuys strummer. I wouldn't wanna walk to Woodland Hills from there. I personally, enjoy the Burbank location for 3 reasons. Reason 1: The breasts they serve there are soooo juicy & Reason 2: The breasts on one of the order takers there are huge.

Well, if you want a location in Woodland Hills, they just opened one in Tarzana immediately east of the Corbin Bowl, which is in essence also the very eastern end of Woodland Hills. btw - it also has a beer & wine license, first one in the chain to do so. Also much more upscale looking, yet in a fast food kind of way.

It is, as I understand it, run by ethnic Armenians who came from Lebanon (there was an enormous Armenian community in northern Lebanon before the genocide). They are definitely Armenians though -- they speak Armenian to each other in the store, not Arabic.

As to the best branch, I'm going to go with the OC branch in Anaheim's Little Gaza -- they're just nicer and the chicken is excellent. All branches use the prepackaged (foil-wrapped) sauce now -- it's made in one place and prepackaged for distribution. The only exception may be the original Hollywood location.

Was it a small or big container? Whereever it's made, every branch presumably keeps tubs of the stuff for sandwiches -- I think you can buy a large container for around $5. Maybe the stuff from the tubs is fresher than the small containers?